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What are your favorite radio stations to grace the Columbus airwaves?

Mine would be the fresh new sound of 105, Hot 105/107 lol that came to an end when they were pressured into canning most of the rap. A close 2nd is the period of time when 107.5 first came on the air because it caused 106.3 to turn to a hip hop heavy mainstream urban format. That, of course, didn't last long because Radio One bought both stations and Power reverted to regularly playing rap only at night. Last would be Kiss fm, WNCI was threatened enough by them to completely rip off their presentation.
 
Hot 105 before they tried to compete with WNCI by canning the rap music. I still have memories of listening to 105.7 out of Marysville struggling to get it clearly in Southwest Franklin County as a teen and jamn' every time Shanice "I Love your smile" came on. A Song that I don't remember WNCI touching as they morphed into their "not to hard not to lite and no top40 teenie music" phase. I even remember them "editing" Casey's Top 40 dropping out songs anytime a rhy/hiphop song came on.

107.1 Kiss FM was also fun - that was back when radio was competitive - It still blows my mind that a 175 kW FM was threatened by two rim shot signals!

Loved "Super Q 93.7" before they moved away from CHR leaning in the 90s - when WNCI would refuse to play the hip-hop that was growing at that time in popularity I would listen to 'Open House Party' on Saturday nights for those hits!

"Wild Country 98.9" was also a fun listen was also a fan of 98.9 during its alternative "Channel Z" phase.
 
101.1, 102.5, and 92.9 - WWCD. Some of the best alternative/modern rock radio ever. Genuinely good people, like Andyman and Randy Malloy.

And Star 107.9, America's first 80's station.
 
Channel Z was an awesome mainstream alt rocker.
Hot 105 was my all time favorite station in Columbus. Nowadays, my tastes have changed and my iTunes rule my airwaves.
Yeah, when 106.7 The Beat came on in 2014 I pretty much didn't care lol they were a good 10 to 15 years to late. Before Hot 105 simulcast on 107.1 I used to hook up my parents outdoor TV antenna and record songs lol when they quit playing most rap I would aim it towards Dayton and record Z93. It's definitely nicer to just have the songs on your phone on demand.
 
101.1, 102.5, and 92.9 - WWCD. Some of the best alternative/modern rock radio ever. Genuinely good people, like Andyman and Randy Malloy.

And Star 107.9, America's first 80's station.
That format of alternative 101 had seems to have disappeared from commercial American airwaves with the exception of literally a couple of stations. There's a good AAA station in Chicago. I know it's not the same, but it's better than Fall Out Boy into a Staind record lol
 
Hot 105 before they tried to compete with WNCI by canning the rap music. I still have memories of listening to 105.7 out of Marysville struggling to get it clearly in Southwest Franklin County as a teen and jamn' every time Shanice "I Love your smile" came on. A Song that I don't remember WNCI touching as they morphed into their "not to hard not to lite and no top40 teenie music" phase. I even remember them "editing" Casey's Top 40 dropping out songs anytime a rhy/hiphop song came on.

107.1 Kiss FM was also fun - that was back when radio was competitive - It still blows my mind that a 175 kW FM was threatened by two rim shot signals!

Loved "Super Q 93.7" before they moved away from CHR leaning in the 90s - when WNCI would refuse to play the hip-hop that was growing at that time in popularity I would listen to 'Open House Party' on Saturday nights for those hits!

"Wild Country 98.9" was also a fun listen was also a fan of 98.9 during its alternative "Channel Z" phase.
Speaking of coverage for 105.7 I was the engineer that built 105.7 years ago. The owner was sure he could cover all of Columbus from Marysville. with 3kw The day we fired it up Ohio had some of the worst skip I've ever heard so needless to say I was accused of not building it right. After a few months he believed me and got another station on the other side of Columbus and simulcast.
 
My former favorite station would be WTVN......Conners, Corby, Steve "Boom Boom" Cannon and Joel Riley...... and also Dave Logan, before he retired........ I remember when "Mother Clear Channel", (Not my words, but John Corby's) started gutting the talent. I remember back when John Frame was on and TVN, the Friendly Giant played music........ My how times have changed and radio as well. The good old days...................
 
Speaking of coverage for 105.7 I was the engineer that built 105.7 years ago. The owner was sure he could cover all of Columbus from Marysville. with 3kw The day we fired it up Ohio had some of the worst skip I've ever heard so needless to say I was accused of not building it right. After a few months he believed me and got another station on the other side of Columbus and simulcast.

I used to enjoy hearing 105.7 the Power Pig countering WNCI's power boasts by declaring that 105.7 was broadcasting with "One MILLION milliwatts of power!"
 
I echo a lot of these sentiments. Arrow 105.7, Channel Z, Star 107.9 and B97 would be my top choices, along with the WTVN of the 80s and early 90s with many of the personalities @The Diamond mentioned.
My sister listened to Hot 105/Kiss FM much more than I did just because our musical tastes were different. Given where we lived off near Brice and 70, 107.1 had the stronger signal once those two began the simulcast and that's what she listened to. I listened to 105.7 more when it switched to Arrow, and I remember the signal always being solid. Sure you could hear a tiny bit of static during a quiet moment between or during songs, but I do not recall the signal ever being bad enough, affected by skip, etc. to prevent me from listening.
I remember 105.7 starting to fade around Lancaster, Indian Lake and Upper Sandusky when I traveled in those directions. I still look at that field when I drive up 33 just west of 42 and remember the tower standing there.
 
Never lived in Columbus but was often close enough to hear stations from there. In 1974 during a North American Shortwave Association convention I visited WCOL AM/FM, with the AM doing top 40 and FM doing AOR (except religion weekdays 6am-2pm.). More recently: the incrnation of 92X, 107.9 when it was oldies, and later Star 107.9. I listened to WTVN pretty often when I lived in the Dayton area, particularly Corby. The oldies incarnation of WBNS, and WODC. I remember the PD at the time checking in with one of the American Top 40 replay Facebook groups.
 
Forgot about 92X. My sister, three years older than me, loved that station.
When Columbus radio was so much better, 20 or 30 years ago, being between here and Dayton was the best. You got some great programming from both markets.
 
My former favorite station would be WTVN......Conners, Corby, Steve "Boom Boom" Cannon and Joel Riley...... and also Dave Logan, before he retired........ I remember when "Mother Clear Channel", (Not my words, but John Corby's) started gutting the talent. I remember back when John Frame was on and TVN, the Friendly Giant played music........ My how times have changed and radio as well. The good old days...................
I was never a big Riley or Corby fan. I’m probably odd man out on Corby as he built an almost cult like following.

I did enjoy Conners, Logan and Fraim when they anchored the key dayparts. Also enjoyed Jim Lohse, Dave Parr, Pat Lucas and Jack Stewart. And can’t forget Bill Smith who was there from 71-74.
 
I started making more regular trips to the Dayton area in the early 2000s, whether for work or to see friends, and remember some Columbus FMs being audible visiting a former co-worker in Beavercreek. Cincinnati stations are still a cinch catch in a lot of Dayton in my experience. I even hear 92.5 and 103.5 in Springfield, the latter being further north of course.
I agree with Del about those WTVN guys. I liked Corby but Dave Logan was always my favorite when my mom had 610 on in the car. Maybe because we share a first name; don't really know, but I always liked hearing him the most.
 
I remember when Hot 105 switched to kiss FM the DJ on power 106.3 saying he wanted to welcome displaced Hot 105 listeners. I was hoping they would at least kind of do the format after 7:00 p.m., but they just kept playing r&b music with a rap song every now and again. I remember being disappointed when I would go to any other city because they always had a better mainstream Urban station
 
Anyone old enough to remember when 103.9 WBBY Westerville was an all-jazz station? I think even Gary Trudeau used those call letters when some of his Doonesbury comic scenarios included a radio station. It made the area feel 'cool' to have a fulltime commercial mainstream jazz station.
I'm long gone from the area now. But did the bluegrass music that used to air weekend nights on the former WOSU-AM 820 ever end up anywhere else on the dial when the station was sold?
 
WOSU migrated all of the AM programming to 89.7 after the acquisition of 101.1 to migrate classical music to. Included with the AM migration was bluegrass that airs on Saturday evening. The show recently celebrated 45 years of being on the air.
 
I remember when WBBY went off the air, but I was still a pre-teen at that point and never listened. It was about eight years before 103.9 came back as classic rock "Eagle 103.9." I was in Toledo for college at the time.
This was around the same time as Smooth Jazz 103.5 and 104.3 came around. I streamed it from Toledo on a semi-regular basis. Liked the music and it was a nice touch of home.
 
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